The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is seeking an innovative strategy and solution to streamline its contracting and procurement processes, in accordance with existing State and Federal regulations. We seek solutions that ensure agility, transparency, and inclusivity within the framework of existing contracting and procurement mechanisms for our department.

Clear and efficient contracting and procurement processes are necessary for timely project execution and vendor engagement while maintaining compliance. To ensure Caltrans’ ability to deliver a world-class transportation network, these processes are critical to completing projects within scope and budget. 

The proposed solutions should align with Caltrans’ overarching goals: 

Cultivate Excellence: Solutions should contribute to the ongoing cultivation of excellence within our organization by ensuring that we are able to efficiently engage with external partners through our contracting and procurement processes.  

Strengthen Stewardship and Drive Efficiency: Solutions should align with Caltrans’ ability to standardize and modernize our organization to better serve the residents of California. 

Proposals submitted in response to this challenge should encompass the following key components: 

Process Improvements: Present strategies to streamline and improve current Caltrans contracting and recruitment processes, within the parameters of existing State and Federal regulation. This may include software support, or process reengineering, among others.  

Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives: Detail initiatives and programs aimed at fostering diversity and inclusion within the contracting and procurement processes. These should encourage representation from diverse and interdisciplinary backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. 

Scalability: Identify how the proposed solution has the potential to improve contracting and procurements processes beyond Caltrans, such as to the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). 

Stakeholder Engagement: Describe initiatives to actively engage the various sectors of the vendor community in the contracting and procurement processes.